Here’s a story of a woman who was stalked for 12 hours by a starving wolf when she was gathering mushrooms with her dog in the wilderness. She had left her gun at home and says she finally got free when a mother bear attacked the wolf.
Some people wonder about the bear part of the story, but she was clearly dehydrated and covered with dead mosquitoes and their blood. The biggest disappointment when she met the rescue party was they had no mosquito repellent.
She said her big mistake was going into the wilderness without a gun — and presumably without enough mosquito repellent? I cheerfully admit, I’m a city slicker and love the fact we have almost no mosquitoes here. The story reminds me of the Cheerful Cherub:
God made the star-hung skies for us,
And singing trees and hills and lakes.
Of course He made mosquitoes too–-
But everybody makes mistakes.
Have you ever had problems with mosquitoes or wild animals?
Go mushroom picking with(out) a gun? Well. I never. Try the Berner Oberland (Switzerland). And not a mosquito in sight.
The story is pathetic. A wolf is hungry. Great. What do you want the wolf to do? Go vegetarian?
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I feel sorry for the wolf and don’t blame him at all. I’m also impressed by how he steered the woman and the dog. But the woman is right, if you go out in the wilderness you have to protect yourself.
once while we lived in northern Minnesota…
our home was near heavy woods and the kettle river ran behind it.
I was doing the dinner dishes and was about to take some kitchen scraps to put into the trash can outside the back door off the concrete porch.
it was night time.
normally I would be in the kitchen alone but daddy had come in for more coffee.
it had been 40 below zero for days on end with heavy snow.
the porch light was on. there was a large ‘dog’ looking at me.
he stood with his head lowered and his eyes gazing up at me.
I was about to hand the nice ‘dog’ some of the food when my dad’s deep voice behind me said “tam. throw the plate to the right and step back through the door IMMEDIATELY.” I did as I was told. (as I ALWAYS did when he spoke)
and the wolf devoured the food.
they were starving. and were coming down from the forests. a sad winter indeed.
Yes, my heart goes out to them. I’m so glad your father had come in, but it sounds as if the wolf wasn’t going to attack as long as you didn’t get in the way of the desperately needed food.
We don’t have wolves here, but we do have coyotes and mountain lions that will occasionally attack dogs, even in the dogs’ backyards. And bears can be a problem when they come down looking for food.
I grew up in Northern Canada, where we were familiar with mosquitoes—they were a scourge! But even though there were supposed to be wolves in the surrounding bush, we never saw one. They leave humans alone, I’m sure. Unless you are wandering around in their territory!
I’ve heard about the mosquitoes up north. I’ve been bitten by many a mosquito in the past, but they weren’t as numerous as where you were.
No, I haven’t had any experiences with wild animals, but mosquitoes are part of our daily life in India.
I expected you to say that. We feel blessed not to be bothered by them.
Yup. Had a bear walk into our campsite when we were backpacking in northern Minnesota. We packed right out. We found out later the bear stole three packs that night. I can’t imagine trying to pack out without the pack.
No doubt about it, bears are smart. And you were smart to get out of there!
we don’t have wolves or bears just wandering into our yards…but we do have mosquitos (mossies) nearly all year round…
and they seem to love me!
of course, that is probably because no one else is in the range…
They really are a nuisance!